New Temporary Relief Measures for Singaporean Married Couples Affected By Remission of ABSD Timeline

Singaporean married couple purchasing a second residential property jointly expecting a remission of the ABSD paid on their second residential property will have more time to sell.

The Government announced today temporary relief measures for property developers and individuals affected by disruptions to construction timelines and sales of housing units resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, and in particular the implementation of the circuit breaker from 7 April to 1 June 2020. The Government will continue to ensure that prices for private residential properties remain broadly consistent with economic fundamentals. Hence, these temporary relief measures do not alter the other existing residential property market cooling measures.

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Real estate consultant Kiwi Lim from Huttons Asia Pte Ltd felt that most of the newly announced temporary relief measures to be implemented with immediate effect are targeted at cushioning developers from Covid-19 impact, with the following measure affecting new launch property buyers and some Singaporean married couples, e.g.

(i) Extension of the Project Completion Period (PCP) by 6 months for residential, commercial and industrial development projects;

Buyers of buildings-under-construction (BUC) will now have a bit more time to pay their progressive payment as developers are given more time to build their projects.

(ii) Extension of time by 6 months for the sale of the first residential property in relation to the remission of ABSD for the second residential property purchased by a Singaporean married couple.

Under the ABSD regime, a Singaporean married couple purchasing a second residential property jointly has to sell their first residential property within the specified timeline, failing which they will not be eligible for a remission of the ABSD paid on their second residential property. The specified timeline for sale of the first residential property is:

(i) 6 months after the date of purchase of the second property, if it is a completed property; or

(ii) 6 months after the issue date of the Temporary Occupation Permit (“TOP”) or Certificate of Statutory Completion (“CSC”), whichever is the earlier, if the second property was uncompleted at the time of purchase.

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Under the temporary relief measures, the specified sale timeline for remission of ABSD paid on their second residential property for Singaporean married couples will be extended by 6 months. To qualify for this extension, both of the following conditions are to be met:

(i) The couple’s second residential property was jointly purchased on or before 1 June 2020; and

(ii) The original timeline for sale of the first residential property expired on or after 1 February 2020.

Eligible Singaporean married couples can refer to the IRAS website for more details. The application for the remission of ABSD must be made within 6 months after the date of sale of the first residential property.

Extracted from MND Newsroom Press Release on 6 May 2020